very
finest mind that I know in the world. He might be.... for talent and
manner and heart; and, if you like, you shall, when I am dead, have
the portrait he has just taken of me. I make the reserve, instead of
giving it to you now, because it is possible that he might wish (I
know he does) to paint one for himself, and if I be dead before
sitting to him again, the present one would serve him to copy. Mr.
Bentley wanted to purchase it, and many have wanted it, but it shall
be for you.

Now, my very dear friend, I am afraid that Mr. ---- has said or done
something that would make you rather come here alone. His last
letter to me, after a month's silence, was _odd_. There was no
fixing upon line or word; still it was not like his other letters,
and I suppose the air of ---- is not genial, and yet dear Mr.
Bennoch breathes it often! You must know that I never could have
meant for one instant to impose him upon you as a companion. Only in
the autumn there had been a talk of his joining your party. He knows
Mr. Bennoch.... He has been very kind and attentive to me, and is, I
verily believe, an excellent and true-hearted person; and so I was
willing that, if all fell out well, he should have the pleasure of
your society here,--the rather that I am sometimes so poorly, and
always so helpless now, that one who knows the place might be of
use. But to think that for one moment I would make your time or your
wishes bend to his is out of the question. Come at your own time, as
soon and as often as you can. I should say this to any one going
away three thousand miles off, much more to you, and forgive my
having even hinted at his coming too. I only did it thinking it
might fix you and suit you. In this view I wrote to him yesterday,
to tell him that on Wednesday next there would be a cricket-match at
Bramshill, one of the finest old mansions in England, a Tudor Manor
House, altered by Inigo Jones, and formerly the residence of Prince
Henry, the elder son of James the First. In the grand old park
belonging to that grand old place, there will be on that afternoon a
cricket-match. I thought you would like to see our national game in
a scene so perfectly well adapted to show it to advantage. Being in
Mr. Kingsley's parish, and he very intimate with the owner, it is
most likely, too, that he wil